Starbound - Endless Space
by Jammin Hyaku-14
Summary: I am Amarus Karin, of the Avian race. Dubbed the Grounded, I fled my village. It is my destiny to live among the stars, my journey only just begun, I will right these wrongs we've caused, and I will fix all of this. This is my destiny, because now I know, that I am bound to the stars.
1. Chapter 1 - Fly Away

StarBound – Endless Space

Written By Jammin Hyaku

Chapter 1 – Fly Away

It was dark, a flickering light scattered across the hallway as trembling footsteps approached. Two people came into the light of the torch that hung from the wall, one held a long silver sword in their right hand with a old rusted shield in their left. The other, wielded a heavy battle axe, shining as though it had just been polished. They mumbled as they spoke to one another. The feathers that spread across their bodies glimmered, bright and shiny, twinkling with every step they took, for they were a proud species, keeping their feathers clean the Avian's were the bird-people. They resembled the humans in stature of the body, but in appearance seemed very different. The one wielding the axe spoke, his voice was deep but very serious;

"We are going to have to attend the ceremony this evening; it should be interesting to attend"

They continued pressing on through the halls deep inside the Avian temple

"I know, I it will be an honor to attend such an amazing ceremony"

"I just hope it pleases Kluex."

The two bird-like people passed by the torch, continuing down the hall into the dark empty hallway. Back on the surface of land, hundreds of other avians scattered across the planet. The Avianss were tall, with their skinny legs leading down to their clawed feet; they had feathers that varied in all assortments of colours. Their beaks were long and eyes were sharp, it felt as though they could see into your very soul as they looked into your eyes, but each and every one of them, seemed to be missing something. Something important, that every bird should have, yet all lacked. Birds had been meant, to fly across the sky, yet not a single Avian amongst the crowd had wings. Avians were smart, and very religious, they believed in the feathered god, Kluex, who gave orders and commands to the leaders, of which they all obeyed, except for few, the corrupt ones dubbed "The Grounded" who abandoned their culture.

The city was large, one of many scattered across the galaxy, representing the proud Avian race, it shimmered gold from the hay of roof tops, the bright colored feathers could be seen for miles. Near the edge of the village, a small house stood just in the right place to be not so noticeable, but out of the way from the other houses, lived a family of four Avian. My name is Amarus, my feathers coloured light blue, I stood tall, and young. But this day, I was not proud. Being only a small child, I feared the ceremony of which our leaders commenced, Kluex, gave the order, it is our punishment for entering the mortal world, to lose our flight. My wings were small, not strong enough to fly but still a beautiful, and perfect in every way, just as the Avians wings were meant to be. "Bong…Bong…Bong" the shacking feeling of the gong from town square ripped through the sound of everyone's ears, we all knew what it ment; time for the ceremony to begin.

Every Avian around the planet gathered in the centre of the square, the small children, of which I was among, sat kneeling on the sand near the front, the only Avians that still had their wings were the baby's, and the young. An old Avian, with golden-yellow feathers walked to the middle of circle that everyone gathered around. Everyone stood silently, the elder Avian began to speak.

"For centuries, our species has continued to follow the will of our god, Kluex. And to this day, that remains. It is not our will, it is our punishment for entering this world of the mortals, and it is our duty as an Avian to accept that punishment. Given to us by Kluex, the order that each and every Avian at young, must have his or her wings clipped off, we are not worthy of the gift of flight, because of our wrongs. And we will see to this punishment, let us all bow our heads in silence, as the ceremony begins. That is all"

The elder retreated into the crowd, as two taller, stronger looking Avians, each with black feathers, and then entered the circle. Each carrying a huge metal contraption that seemed to be some kind of scissors, a smaller Avian with purple feathers, and carrying a long paper list, and then stepped into the circle between them, all of people around the circle bowed their heads and closed their eyes in silence, I did the same, as the purple Avian spoke.

"Alright, I hold in my hands a list of all the young Avian, old enough to be eligible to participate in the ceremony. I will now begin reading out the names, two at a time, as you hear your name, it I would appreciate it if you would open your eyes, and approach one of the two Avian you see before you. You have the right to refuse, but we will be called to other means if nessasary. After your turn has ended, you are to leave, and return to your homes, for the rest of us to continue the ceremony. The adults of the group are expected to stay the whole period, alright now, let us begin."

I sat there, the sand was soft but cold, I trembled, horrified as they began calling out names. Pair by pair, they began clipping the wings off of the young avian, as the rest of us who have yet to be called, sat with our eyes shut, waiting patiently for our turns. The moment I heard it, I felt like I died a little on the inside, a cold shiver shock flew down my spine, as it rang out in my ears.

"Amarus Karin, and Satr Villeing"

I opened my eyes, and tried to stand up, my feet were wobbly and I could feel my claws shaking. I approached one of the tall Avian, and looked up at him in fear, I heard him mumble

"Close your eyes, and relax your back"

As he turned me around and placed the machinery on my back, and just like that, I was flightless.


	2. Chapter 2 - Culture

Chapter 2 – Culture

Ten years in the future, and not much has changed. Things barely ever changed to be honest, the Avian people were a slow race in advancing in technology and other assets of daily life, they were modern, old times people. The town still stood in the middle of the large desert planet, I thought I'd never leave my town, as I drank a glass of water from the river, why would I ever need to? It was hot, and sunny outside this morning, I had been out in the sun for quite some time already, I figured I should head home and prepare dinner for the family; it was my turn to cook. I slung a large brown bag over my shoulder, of which contains the body of a small purple monster I had hunted earlier this day, I didn't really know what it was called, all that mattered was it is edible. The sand was cold, as I began my journey across the town. I walked around the edge of the houses to stay away from the busy crowds in town square; I wasn't one much for chit chat, but I always enjoyed seeing everyone's happy faces.

"Oh, good morning Amarus! Any luck hunting this morning?"

Yelled one of the neighbor ladies, Mrs. Garson, she was always nice and pleasant, occasionally would invite my family over for dinner.

"Morning Mrs. Garson, and yes actually, quite enough for my family and I, what have you been up to today?"

"Oh, nothing too much dearie, just watering the plants."

Oh how she loved to water flowers, it was almost an obsession, sometimes she would water them three or four times a day, and drown the poor things, she never meant to though, she just loved to watch them grow.

"Best of luck to you then, Mrs. Garson, Id best be on my way home now, I'll stop by later to say hello!"

"Alright then, I'll look forward to it!"

I turned away and pressed on across the town, my house came into view soon after and I felt relieved, it was so hot I think I might die. As I approached my house I took a glance at the bright blue sky that lay above me, it was majestic. The twinkling of stars in the suns glow, with the hints of colour from far off planets that were just barely visible in the daylight. I always wished I could fly, I'd never even had the chance to learn how, and now I don't even remember what it felt like to have wings. The door squeaked a little as I opened it and walked inside.

"Hey, I'm home!"

I shouted, my father soon walked into the room carrying a partial crafted sword. He was a tall strong Avian, with dark brown feathers and very intimidating eyes; he was a blacksmith that made weapons for the guards that protect out village from monsters.

"Afternoon Amarus, I have to be off to the temple, I have some spears to deliver as the ceremony takes place today. I'll be back in time for dinner, keep an eye on your little brother will you?"

"Alright father, have a nice walk"

He left the house, as I placed the sack that I carried down on a wooden table in the centre of the kitchen. Removing the purple monster from the bag, and heating up the oven, while getting out the kitchen tools, my little brother came downstairs, most likely eager to see what I had brought home for dinner.

"Hello! What'd you bring for dinner brother? I'm starving!"

Bingo, I was right. My brother; Ravinue, was a shorter Avian, with bright purple coloured feathers, and big eyes that made him seen amazing cute, but was also sort of annoying at the same time. His interest in the food died off in a minute, and he decided to poke the creature in the forehead and then walk over to stand next to me before I cooked it.

"Just wait, it will be ready in a couple hours. Where going to have to attend the ceremony today, I know you may not want to, but just bear with it."

I spoke sort of shockingly; I think I was more affected by the ceremony than Ravinue ever was. He had his wings clipped a couple of years ago, but he always preferred to have his feet on the ground, so he never really cared.

"Aw do we have to go? It's so boring…"

I had to agree with that, it was definitely not fun. But it's something we all had to do, as a reminder of our wrongs by entering the "mortal world." Our culture says that we Avians came from the heavens, and were never meant to come to this universe, and because we did, we were stripped of our wings, only to get them back in the afterlife. I don't really agree with that, to be honest, I think the god; Kluex, is a fake. But to speak your mind of this is to be killed on the spot. Those who don't believe in our culture are dubbed as the "grounded" and flee the village into other worlds of the galaxy. Our race spreads across many planets, we use spaceships to travel from planet to planet, but only certified Avians are permitted to aces them. We get our power from magic crystals; I don't think any other species uses this method, which really makes us unique. But the little technology we do have, we only have because another species had pity on us and shared their technology with us. Only less than an hour remained until the sound of the gong would call out.

"Hey Ravinue, dinner is going to be a couple hours until its ready, want to go outside and shoot some arrows in the forest before the ceremony?"

His face lit up at the sign of something to do in the day.

"YEA! Let's hurry, I want to practice my shooting!"

We grabbed our bows and headed out to the forest near the edge of our house, there were only a few trees as it was a desert, and Ravinue was always a horrible shot, but I couldn't stand just sitting around waiting for the ceremony to come, I wanted to do something.


	3. Chapter 3 - Grounded

Chapter 3 – Grounded

The gong was loud as ever, the annual ceremony commenced as all the Avian people gathered in the center of the village, me and my brother among the crowd, our father was elsewhere, likely still in the Avian temple. The temple was huge, on the surface it was two heads of great Avian leaders, their beaks opened wide where a door was placed inside their mouths leading inside, ive only been inside the temple once, it goes miles down, it's the place where Avians and the occasional human are buried when they die. The humans are very close friends of the Avian species, and we sometimes get visitors every so often, they sometimes get buried in our temple because we believe that by them being buried near us, in death they may spread wings to fly as well. It's sweet really, I myself like the humans, there interesting creatures… they look like us, but their mouths are all weird, and they lack feathers.

Gathered all in the center of town, the ceremony began, I hate this day for many reasons, missing my wings was only one. Not to mention I thought Kluex was a fraud, but most of all, it's the day my mother died. Ten years ago today I had my wings clipped, every Avian kept their eyes shut, not being able to watch as their young lost their wings, but my mother just couldn't sit there. She refused to close her eyes, to block out reality. She screamed at the site of me losing my wings, and charged toward the large Avian behind me, she violently slashed at the Avian, trying to protect me as well, but it was to late, I had already lost my wings, and there I stood, as my mother fell to the ground with this giant machinery in her back, on that day, I lost my mother. The guards were forced to retaliate violently, and there just wasn't any chance of saving her after that. My little brother would have just hatched from his egg about then, maybe a month or two old. My thought and concentration was destroyed as the last sound of the gong rang out, the ceremony was beginning. This time a new elder with bright white feathers stepped in to perform the ceremony as the last elder resigned after last year. His beak opened to speak but they were only words I didn't want to hear.

"For centuries, our species has continued to follow the will of our god, Kluex. And to this day, that remains."

This speech disgusts me more and more each year that passes.

"It is not our will, it is our punishment for entering this world of the mortals, and it is our duty as an Avian to accept that punishment."

I kept aching for him to stop, but I know he wouldn't, no one would stop this from happening.

"Given to us by Kluex, the order that each and every Avian at young, must have his or her wings clipped off, we are not worthy of the gift of flight, because of our wrongs."

This isn't right, why won't anyone stop this? Kluex hasn't been seen for years, disappeared, where's our proof he exists? How do we know this is real? No one is going to stop this… no… someone must stop this.

"And we will see to this punishment, let us all bow our heads in silence, as-"

"NO! Stop this ceremony right now!"

I yelled at the top of my lungs, so everyone could hear my voice.

"Why are we doing this? Why would our own god forsake this misery upon us? What sort of god is Kluex? And where's are proof he's even real! If Kluex hasn't been seen for years, who's to say he never existed at all? Can't you all see that? This isn't our 'punishment' we don't have to deal with this! Listen to my words; do they not make more sense then what these elders tell us of our legends?"

I noticed I was screaming, and instantly shrugged back down, I saw out of the corner of my eye one of the elders standing atop the dungeons entrance; give the order to the guards to stop me. Immediately I noticed several guards start shoving there was to my direction, hoping to stop me before I spoke again. But I think that's all I really had to say, I was afraid if I opened my mouth nothing else would even come out. I looked at my odds and knew there was nothing I could do, if I stayed I would be bound to the same fate my mother had been. I spotted a gap between to Avians staring at me and charged through, making my way through the crowd as fast as possible. I tucked my head down and tried to not hit anybody, hoping the guards would lose me in the mess of people. I knew exactly what I had done, and I knew exactly what I was getting into. I tripped over someone's feet, I never found out who, I just got up and continued dashing forward as fast as I could, a couple of times I saw a guard up ahead, I quickly changed course on a ninety degree angle, so that I wouldn't run into them again, minutes later I burst from the crowd and darted down the street, I turned a corner and hid behind a house just as four guards broke out of the crowd and begin to look for me, all of which were carrying deadly weapons, none of which I planned on letting be the death of me.

Stumbling over my own feet I entered a house that's door was unlocked, hurried up the stairs hid for a moment. I watched as the guards split up, passing by my initial hiding spot, and at the same moment I noticed I was also trapped. Blue birds are meant to fly, meant to have wings, unfortunately this one doesn't, but I only had one choice. I opened a window on the second floor, took a couple of steps back, and jumped. For a moment, it felt like I was soaring, like I was a real Avian flying at will. This was what it was meant to be like, I am destined to live among the stars, it felt so right with the wind in my face, until that moment ended and smashed against the roof of the neighbouring house, I got up and continued running down the rooftop length-wise, jumping to the next one as I got there. Crawling as I passed by guards on the hunt, I noticed that a Avian facility was up ahead, but it's not exactly what caught my eye, I was glaring at the Avian craft spaceship placed right outside of it, ready for flight.

I made my way, closer and closer, this was my only chance of escape, I knew it was. I just barely managed to climb up to the roof of the facility, standing just higher than the top of the spaceship which was guarded by at least ten guards. They prepared the ship for takeoff, assumingly to look for me, the sooner I was caught the sooner their ceremony could continue. I waited and waited, about seven minutes passed, and just as the ship preparers got off board, I jumped. "CRASH" I landed right on the metal roof, it stung in my legs horrible, but I couldn't stop now, the guards saw me and began to fire, but I had already opened the hatch and secured myself inside. The dent of where I had landed could be seen on the inside, but im sure it could be buffered out. I've seen these ships many times and my father would take me to visit them when he delivered some pieces he completed, I knew what some things did but not exactly how to work it. I mashed some buttons, set the navigation to some random planet within the ships fuel range, and pulled the lever to start, and just like that, before the guards could even react. I was gone.

The ship mumbled and grumbled as it started up the engines, the bright pink energy crystals on the outside flicker colours and began to stream energy into the ships power lines, with a slight boost of the thrusters the ship took off leaving the ground in the dust. I screamed with enjoyment but also fear, I knew what I was leaving behind, but I swore I would return one day with proof Kluex didn't exist, and to return to my family. All of this seemed over exaggerated, all I did was speak my mind, but that is culture, and that is belief. I saw the stars ahead, the planets beyond, excited of where I may end up, who knows where it could be.

I am Amarus Karin, of the Avian race. Dubbed the Grounded, I fled my village. It is my destiny to live among the stars, my journey only just begun, I will right these wrongs we've caused, and I will fix all of this. This is my destiny, because now I know, that I am bound to the stars.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Black, Starry Sky

Chapter 4 – The Black, Starry Sky

Navigation set course, the thrusters boosted, the stars shot by like a bullet out of a gun. A large green planet came into view just in the distance; that must be it. The navigation systems estimated two minutes until arrival.

"Prepare the gravity immobilizers!"

I shouted out, even though no one else was there I just loved saying it. I rushed over to the ships monitors, turning off auto-pilot I grabbed hold of the joystick controls and slowed the speed to half it was, I'd never flown a spaceship before, but I can tell, this is the kind of job for me. The ship began to slow, and the pressure was intense, I then realised that I sort of kind of forgot to put my seat belt on, I flew out of my chair and hit the wall in the back of this ship. Noticing I left the controls, auto pilot re-kicked in and stopped the ship, I felt sort of lopsided and the stop wasn't very great, but for a rookie, I think I did pretty well. For the first time since entering the ship, I took a moment to look around and investigate. The ship was long; it had a small room in the back containing the beam transporter that is used to get up and down from planets, and a small ladder leading to a very tight bedroom up above. Through a metal door was the biggest room, containing a lot of Avian culture inside, such as a giant emblem hanging from the wall, and miniature Avian statues of leaders holding spears – Avians always preferred spears in combat, over a sword if possible. There was also a ship locker in the main room, containing minimal supplies, and then there were tools and crafting stations, such as a furnace, a workers bench, and an anvil on the second floor of the main room. Finally there was a even smaller room in the front of the ship containing the navigation system, the fuel deposit box, and the monitors and controls; along with a seat for extra comfort. I laughed at my success, I escaped, completely unharmed! This is the kind of thing that tingles the bones, exploring the galaxy, you never know where you may end up and you never have to care, because you can always just go somewhere else!

I stepped onto the beam transporter, there was a small dial to the side with a screen, showing the approximate length down until ground could be found, I entered the number it had shown and clicked "beam." A red light became visible, I could feel myself getting light, a beam tinted red appeared as if out of thin air and shot down on me, the next thing I knew I was sitting down on dirt, rubbing my head. It sort of hurt, for the first time and my vision was wobbly for a few minutes; I got my balance and stood up. The world was beautiful. Trees spread across the land, as tall as I could see; the dirt was a light green, covered in plants and seeds all around. The air was thin, but had a unique smell to it, the oxygen was also very thick here, and it made me feel dizzy. The blood was rushing to my head; the flickering sound of something buzzing right by my head snapped me back into reality. I turned around to see what had almost hit me, and found an arrow sticking out of a tree. What the heck? I thought to myself, someone was trying to kill me? I turned around again to see who had shot the arrow, only to gaze up with my mouth hanging wide open. Atop a mountain in distance stood a tall girl with pale skin, holding a bow, but what was behind her really shocked me. Covering around seventy percent of the sky was the twisting and churning of a black hole, just barely in the distance. It was massive, just the sight of it made me feel uneasy, it twinkled purple and black as I watched hundreds of planets and stars get sucked into it every second that passed; this was the fear of utter destruction. Still facing my direction, the girls feet left the ground, the wind was picking up, causing the trees to shake more and more violently every minute. The grass was almost vibrating, and I knew it wouldn't be long until this planet would be enclosed in darkness forever too. Leaving the ground, the girl was picked up and faster and faster being sucked into the black hole.

"NO!"

I screamed, begging it to stop happening, but it didn't stop, and I watched as she was pulled in further until she was no longer visible. I looked back, staring at the arrow she had shot towards me, just then did I notice a small white piece of paper wrapped around the wooden arrow. I walked over to it, unfolding it from the arrow I read what it, the letter contained a series of numbers, but what could they be? I thought for a moment… a pass code? But to what… no that couldn't be it. A leaf that had been blown off the branch of a tree violently hit me in the face, this sudden reminder of my position reminded me I had to get out of there and fast, or my journey across space would end before it even began. That's when it hit me, a location. I used the molecular hand held beam ray connected to the space ship that fit comfortably around my wrist, to beam back up. The light once more shone down, taking me apart, particle by particle, and then reassembling me back inside the ship. I ran over to the navigation monitor, watching the black hole from behind the window, and I entered the series of numbers that the note had on it. The numbers fit perfectly, and I hit the "deploy" button. Turning the ship around manually I entered the ships highest speed, which beat out the speed of sound, and flew directly to the location I had been told. But who was the girl on top the mountain? And why send me this note? It's clear she could have hit me direct on if she wanted to, but she didn't, so there must be a reason I'm going here. But either way, she's gone now and there's nothing I can do about that. Minutes passed before the location came into view, it appeared to be a planet, which was expected, where else would it be out here? I slowed the speed of the ship, allowing auto pilot to take care of this stop, I sat in the chair with my seat belt on this time. After coming to a complete stop, I undid my seat belt and stood up, the planet appeared to be green on one side, but somewhere around the middle it turned in to a purple colour. Walking over to the beam transporter I selected how far down I wanted to go, and as if I had fallen asleep to reawake on the planet, I stood there like nothing had happened. After a few seconds the side effects kicked in and I felt to feel queasy again, but that wore off soon enough.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Prettiest Weed

Chapter 5 – The Prettiest Weed

I stood in a field, trees with dark brown bark stood across the land, off in the distance, just in view, was a village, a village on fire. Flames burning bright as it spread through the houses, coming off as smoke releasing into the sky, casting a dark shadow over the landscape. I had to do something; people could be dying over there. I sprinted as fast I could, climbing over hills and fallen trees, across the land, in a desperate attempt to reach the village. I had no idea what I would do when I got there, but I had to at least try. Tripping over a branch in the think forestry I made it to the outskirts of the village. From what I could see the village was quite long, the streets were stone and the houses made of wood with straw roofs, it all burned too quickly. The flames still burning, I heard a sound, it sounded like someone was crying, it was faint and hard to hear, but I followed it. Making sure to stay on the stone pathway away from the flames, I continued getting closer to the sound; some of the houses I passed were even built right into trees, although it was hard to make out as most of them were burnt to a crisp. Continuing down the path I came across a small water fountain, with a statue of someone sitting in the middle of it. At the base of the pond a girl sat, hunched over. I could hear her crying, at the destruction of her village. I wondered if I should approach her, but there was no point in just standing here. Slowly I walked toward her, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Hello..? Are you alright?"

I said calmingly, I didn't want to frighten her. She turned her head, noticing I was there. She wiped the tears off of her face and stood up; she was roughly as tall as I was. Her skin was a light green, wearing a dress of leaves and vines. Her eyes were solid black, and quite wide, she had long dark green hair down to her waist with a small necklace around her neck.

"What do you want?"

She asked, seeming sort of angry and sad at the same time.

"Uhm… I don't really know I just got here, I saw the fire and rushed over, is there anything I can do? Is anyone else still in the village?"

"No, they all gone, every last one of them. The fire killed them all, our bodies burn as fast as paper, we didn't stand a chance against attack"

Now she sounded even angrier, I just hoped she wouldn't take it out on me. I noticed that she spoke with sort of an accent, or just didn't speak English very well, it was hard to tell, but it fascinated me how different other species can be.

"What happened, and what kind of species are you exactly? I've never met another species except the humans."

"The Apex, they attacked usss, they flew over us with their ssspaceships and dropped a bomb on our village, and it was such a peaceful day until they arrived. I am Floran, we are the plant people."

"The place is burning, and the air is becoming thick with smoke, we have to get out of here immediately, come with me, please, I don't want any more people to die today."

I held out a hand as an offering to come with me, she seemed weary, which was to be expected, after this traumatizing experience, and after losing her entire village. She excepted my offer and took my hand, using the beam teleporter I beamed both of us back up to the ship, it was a lot rougher ride with too people, we both stumbled to not fall over when we reappeared on the ship.

"This is my ship, it has clean air and it will be a lot safer here."

"It's like one the Apex sssent to attack us this morning."

I never thought of it that way… I felt incredibly rude, but it still was safer here than a burning village.

"Do you have any idea what you're going to do now?"

I asked, trying to be as polite as I could. She responded sounding sad again;

"No, I lived in village my entire life."

I wanted to know more about this species the Floran, and I had so many questions of the "Apex" and why they were attacking the Floran village, but I decided it would be best to not ask so many questions right now, I know if it were me in her position I would not want to be bothered by a lot of questions.

"Sorry the place is a little… Avian… it's from my home planet"

"That'sss alright…"

I then sat through sever awkward moments of silence, as time passed by. She sat on the floor against the wall silently thinking about what had happened, probably trying to convince herself it never really happened. I had a thought, something I wanted to ask, it felt sort of sudden but I blurted it out anyway.

"Why, don't you maybe come with me?"

Well that was awkward. I never really wanted to travel through space alone; the galaxy was big enough for the both of us.

"Where would we go? Where do you live?"

"Where to go? Anywhere you want. It's a space ship, the entire galaxy is within our reach! Millions of planets, stars, rocks, comets, constellations and so much more are waiting to be explored, seen, and found!"

She laughed at my words, but not in a mean way, I could tell she knew I was serious. I want to go on adventures, solve mysteries, explore different worlds, but I don't want to do it alone.

"Why do you want me to come? We just met and you hardly know me, you've never even met a Floran before."

She asked, I could tell how I answered this question would likely decide whether she came with me or not.

"Well, because it's lonely. The galaxy is a big place, bigger than you could ever imagine. And what's the fun in adventuring around, if you don't have someone to enjoy it with?"

I stopped for a moment to let my words sink in. She looked back at the floor and considered this opportunity. I know it was a big decision, and the galaxy may be big, but it is a dangerous place to. Billions of different species walk among these planets, and not all of them are friendly.

"I should probably ask your name first, shouldn't i? I'm Amarus Karin, of the Avians."

"My name is Assserva leeritz, of the Flora."

It was a pretty name; I wish I heard more about other races back on my home planet.

"So Aserva Leerits, will you travel the universe with me?"

She paused to think again for a moment.

"Yes, I'd like that."

Sounding almost excited, she stood up and we raced over to the control room;

"Where to first? You decide!"

Randomly entering buttons we excitedly mashed the deploy button at the same time, excited to see where we would end up next.


	6. Chapter 6 - All isn't wonderful in Space

Chapter 6 – All isn't wonderful in Space

The ground was hard and solid. Like a moon, dust and rocks covered the planet. The rocks where a light grey that almost seemed to glow purple in the light of the sun. A gust of wind blew through my hair, as we crouched down patiently. Ahead was a small military base, guarded by two machines that appeared to be turrets. The base was small, but isolated and made of a hard metal. Aserva and I crouched at the bottom of the hill, waiting for just the right moment to sneak by them. The base was placed just at the right spot for the turrets to see at a far range, they could see everything except for what was right beneath them. Both of them circled the building, on their usual path we caught a break when they both stopped at the other side of the base. I gave a gesture for Aserva to follow me, and we sprinted up the hill as fast as our legs would carry us. Reaching the edge of the base, Aserva put her hands out, I stepped with one foot onto the palms of her hands and she boosted me up, I was just tall enough to grab hold of the roof of the base, and pull myself up. After completing the task, I reached down with my right arm and Aserva grabbed a hold, and I pulled her up, it was a good thing the roof of the base was flat, or I would have fallen off.

We were safe from the turrets as from our observations we knew they could only see at a horizontal field of view, however they could shoot in any direction. We scanned the roof looking for a way in, and found a small trap door almost; it was closed but not locked. I lifted the door up, and held it for Aserva to go through; it was painfully heavy. I slid under and the door closed behind me with a thud. I thought that the turrets would hear this, but after a moment I was proved wrong as nothing happened. We looked carefully around the area and found a small locker, a bed, and monitors and devices that were probably used by some species to scan the area. The contents of the locker spilled out as I opened it, scrimmaging through the pile of stuff I found a fairly lengthy wooden spear with a steel tip at the end, an iron short sword that was roughly used, and a pile of pre-cooked meat, only requiring to be heated first. The base was probably a resting place for whatever species lived on this planet as they travelled by.

At the other side of the room was a small stair case, it was only a two floored base, and the width of the base wasn't that big either. Lying down on my stomach I poked my head down the stairs and saw a turret at the base of the stairway, along with the two outside that made three. Aserva had already taken liking to the short sword we found, which worked well for me as Avians always preferred spears over any other weapon. Grabbing hold of the spears wooden base, we crept over to the stairs and waited for the right moment, just as the turret was facing the other way we ran down the small set of stairs straight towards the turret. Halfway down the turret heard our loud feet as we ran directly towards it, and it turned around to see what was causing all the noise, just in time to see me jab my spear straight down through the top of it. It short circuited and then let off a hissing noise and a some steam, yanking my spear out of the turrets head, Aserva ran passed me and smashed another one of the turrets in that just entered through the main entrance, its lights flickered and the wires let of electricity as it broke down, almost directly in half; the Flora seems to be quite aggressive creatures. Just then the last standing turret entered through the back door, this time with its shields up. It was like a faint blue orb surrounding the turret, it saw me first and aimed its guns at me, I quickly hid behind the remaining piece of junk that was once a turret in front of me, and it took the heavy hits of the gunshots. As it was targeting me, Aserva rushed over to it, and smashed down on its shields with all her force, just being able to crack the barrier, she continued bashing her sword on it. The turret aimed its gun on her, but while it was occupied I ran up close and personal, it didn't stand a chance with all the damage already caused to its shield as my spear smashed through it, continuing through to the other side of the turrets head. The pieces of the shield broke off like glass, dissolving in a matter of seconds but leaving behind sparkles almost like someone poured glitter everywhere.

"Ahhahaha we did it we just destroyed a military base!"

I yelled out, it was extremely exciting, I've never done something that dangerous before, if the turrets had shot us we would have been dead meat!

"We crushed turrets into ground! Assserva excited!"

Stepping out the back door of the base, we admired the view of the planet from the opposite side of mountain we came from. The view was amazing, for a moon it sure was a pretty place, although not one of the safest, I could see two other security bases just like this one from here, and what seemed to be a city directly ahead, at quite a distance. I looked over at Aserva and it appeared she had seen the city as well, but she didn't seem as excited anymore, in fact, she looked angry. She spoke while gritting her teeth;

"Apex."

That was the name of the species she said attacked her village. That means there must be Apex all around this planet, and probably hundreds of them in that city down there. Coming back to reality, I saw that Aserva had already started walking toward the city, I could tell she wasn't going to say hello.

"Wait! Aserva what are you doing? Wait up!"

I yelled will running to catch up with her, if the Apex hated the Florans that much, I knew this would not be a pleasant trip, and would probably end up bad for us. But I knew there was no way I could convince Aserva to stop going to the village, so I just went along with it. Hoping nothing to bad would come out of this.


	7. Chapter 7 - City of Apex

Chapter 7 – City of Apex

The city was busy, as Apex roamed the streets. The species were interesting, it was almost frightening how technology advanced they were. They were tall and strong, and covered in hair all over, usually black or brown. Most wore suits, which were typically a dark green; I assumed they were the guards, whereas the rest wore normal clothes or white jackets, who I assumed were scientists. We snuck around the edge of the city, hiding behind buildings where no one else would see us. Aserva was determined not to get caught, I figured that whatever was going on between the Flora and Apex must be pretty big, but it was already clear I was on Aserva's side. From time to time I would spot a statue of a giant Apex, I wondered if it was their leader. I also wondered if he was a real leader, or just like Kluex. We came across the small window leading to the cellar of a café some while around the city. It was small, but I think we could get through it. I strapped my spear to my back using a piece of rope I had found earlier, and Aserva had kept a small sheath to hold her sword in around her belt. I opened the window, luckily it wasn't locked, and we squeezed through.

The cellar was dark, and very messy. It stunk with the odour of rotten food and drinks. We searched the area hoping to find a sewer gate or some kind of path to their science labs, we thought if we could learn some of their technology, or maybe even take something, it would expand our species development. We came across a small wooden door in the wall, that lead down a flight of stairs, we followed it to end up in a narrow pathway that felt like a sewer, but was a cleaner than expected. Following the route we found a small ladder that went up for quite a while, climbing up it we found ourselves in the basement of a hotel.

"Not quite where we wanted to be, but where a lot closer to the center of the town now"

I said, trying to stay silent even though no one else was around.

"Agreed, letsss explore more"

Aserva walked up to a door and went through it; I'm guessing it lead to the lobby of the hotel. I followed her and we found ourselves having multiple Apex glaring at us, probably wondering why we just walked out of the basement. They sat in chairs reading but did not seem hostile or angry at us. I guess they weren't as mean as I thought, but I did notice they stared at Aserva a little funny, they were at war after all; but this didn't seem to be a major military based planet.

Outside the hotel was a long street, the roads were made of stone and medal streetlights lit up the paths. Many Apex wandered around going in and out of shops, walking around with friends and doing their various daily activities. Some of which looked at us funny, feeling uncomfortable having strange guests in their city. Many guards were placed around, keeping order in their designated places.

"Come, we find lab"

Aserva said as she turned down the road heading deeper into the city, she seemed more aggressive than normal and I had begun to contemplate if this was really a good idea for a first adventure, I didn't mean to cause chaos after all. Catching up to her we reached the center of the city, a large building stood right in the middle, and if I had to guess, I'd say it was the science lab we were looking for. Two guards stood outside it, only permitted people could pass; we would have to find another way in if we really wanted to get some of their technology. I did not feel very good about this, but Aserva didn't want to turn back, and I doubt we would be able to just leave now that so many people have spotted us. I could tell the guards had been watching us, people don't usually just walk into cities like this, and I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"We had been hurry"

"We hurry; follow me we find way around guardsss"

We walked closer the building and slipped behind a small house when no one was watching. Making our way to the lab, Aserva boosted me up onto a house, and I lifted her up after, we had been on so many rooftops now, it was almost becoming a habit. The guards had heavy guns here unlike in my Avian village, so we had to crawl from roof to roof, jumping across when no one could see us. This led us to the side of the lab building, about one floor above the soldiers guarding the entrance. I used my spear to crack a window close enough to the roof we stood on so we could easily jump through. Using my hands I removed pieces of the glass slowly so I wouldn't create any loud noises, and I made sure to take out all the glass so it looked clear and not like someone had just broken through. After I was done with that, Aserva took a step back, and jumped through, I followed right behind her. The lab was amazing, but terrifying at the same time. I'd say it was like a whole other world if we weren't actually on a whole other world. The walls were spotless white, and the doors looked like heavy machinery that just shouldn't be there, the weirdest part was that they opened up and down, which freaked me out a little. I approached one of the doors and just a foot away, the door opened; for me. I jumped back in fright preparing my spear for combat, after a moment I realised that nothing had really happened; right here that technology was enough to take over the universe in my standards. Looking over at Aserva she looked back at me funny, she was more used to this technology than I was having she had been a Floran, who have been at war with the Apex for several years.

I took a moment to think, then we proceeded through the door, past it there was a long hallway with another hallway to the right halfway down. At the end of the hallway was another door that probably leads somewhere important, as there was a camera attached to the roof, watching the door. Walking down the hallway I stopped, and peered around the edge where the second hallway was leading right. Someone was coming as I heard a door open in that direction. Two Apex, both wearing white coats, entered the hallway and started heading straight in this direction, one wore a pair of glasses, the other was tall and carried a clip board. I tucked my head back behind the wall and we stood as still as possible, hugging the white wall and tight as possible. The Apex talked as they came in this direction.

"Where going to have to do something with it, after all this technology could be devastating to anyone who comes in contact with it."

The one carrying the clipboard said

"Well we will have to continue tests for now, unfortunately its hard to tell if it works until the testing dummies return"

Said the other, they turned the corner heading down the opposite direction we were, thankfully, and passed through the door. We slowly and quietly went down the hall the two Apex had come from, and investigated the room they once stood in. it was locked and had caution signs everywhere, but I only wanted to know what was inside even more.

"Should we go inside?"

"It what Floran come here for, no doubtsss"

she took out her sword, and smashed in the lock until it broke right off, and then sheathed it again. The door opened, and inside was another long hallway, leading to a small contained room at the end, with a little grey box sitting inside a glass container. Just to our luck, the hallway leading to it had at least ten to twenty security cameras all across it as well.

"How are we going to get through? There's no way we can take them down stealthily, we will be noticed, and as soon as one breaks someone will be sent to fix it."

But that was a stupid question, as it was already too late; Aserva had a plan of her own.


	8. Chapter 8 - Time and Space

Chapter 8 – Time and Space

My ears rang out as hundreds of ringing alarms rang out all across the building. Flashing red lights shone on every inch of the solid white walls that stood all around us. Aserva ran down the hallway smashing in ever security camera along the wall, reaching the end within seconds. Following behind her we ended up in a small closed room, where a small box stood on a glass table, under a glass case. Underneath the case, were small letters, reading out as:

"Time Machine"

"-Work in Progress-"

The Apex were developing a time machine? This was truly astounding. I hadn't the slightest idea that this could even be possible, in something so small it could fit in the palm of your hand. With one final blow of the evening, Aserva smashed the glass in with the handle of her sword. Triggering the backup security, a small door in the ceiling opened, and a miniature machine gun came out, locking on to her.

"Hurry we escape now!"

She yelled turning and running back down the hall with the small box in one hand and the sword in another, with me not to far behind. Clearly whatever neutral bonds we had with the Apex were certainly destroyed at this point. Dashing around the corners we headed straight for the broken window we came through, turning the last corner that lead to our escape of the lab, about ten security guards headed our way from right behind us.

"Halt intruders!"

They yelled trying to catch us, after all a time machine would be something that could change millions of lives, even if we got away, we shouldn't use it, it's too risky. The guards began shooting with their guns, we tried to run as fast as we could but it wasn't as easy as made out to be. A hollow gun shot rang out in my ears as the bullet pressed through my arm, it hurt more than words could describe. My arm began to bleed but we kept going forward, I was just lucky it didn't hit my leg or I would have been a goner. As we approached the window I blocked the door way while Aserva jumped through back to the rooftop of a nearby house. With all the strength I could muster I hurled the spear with one hand straight towards the swarm of guards coming towards me, hitting one of them in the left shoulder. Upon doing so, I turned around and went straight for the window, making it there just in time. Jumping through I found Aserva waiting for me, and we ran down the edge of shingled roof, jumping to the next upon reaching the end. The guards from the lab followed our lead and jumped through the window, in a desperate attempt to catch us, but they didn't follow us, they stood down and prepared for fire. Up ahead we could see several other guards climbing up the sides of houses, trying to block the way forward. Jumping from one roof to the next I by accident landed on the fingers of one guard as he had almost made it to the top, leaving him to fall back down to the ground.

"Sorry!"

I yelled, I didn't mean to make him fall, but for us it was just a bonus. It was lucky the houses were all arranged in straight lines or we would be trapped running down the street.

"Were not going to make it!"

I yelled to Aserva

"We run faster, we make it!"

She screamed back in all the commotion. Picking up the pace, the guards back at the window began firing, as if there wasn't enough noise with all the alarms. Civilians hid in their homes and watched through their windows, this must be quite a show where putting on right now. The end of the row of houses came into sight, which meant the end of the village. I wish we could just beam up to our ship right now, but we were too far away, we had to be close enough so that it could beam us in safely.

The last house couldn't come soon enough, leaping off the top of the two floor house we landed with a thud on the ground, the hard moon surface didn't help the aching bones in my legs. Pressing on we left the noise filled village that continued to ring out with sirens and alarms, many guards continued to follow us. Realizing we were heading to a space ship, several ships of their own were being prepared behind us for flight combat, we were going to have to hurry. Reaching an area within the beam ray, I beamed us up to my ship, the shooting had finally stopped. All was quiet but we still weren't free yet, looking down at the far off planet we stood upon seconds ago, I could make out teeny tiny space ships taking off in our pursuit.

"Aserva where going to have to lose them, do you know how to fly a ship?"

"No, Assserva never learned how to fly."

I should've seen that coming, I barely knew how to pilot a ship myself. Approaching the navigation system I checked our fuel gauge, it wasn't good. Only a small amount of fuel remained meaning we were going to have to lose them somehow and find more fuel on a different planet, hopefully enough to get far, far away from this place. Setting our destination as a planet just barely within our flight range, we set course and set off, beginning our next adventure, dragging our last one along with us.

Kicking in to hyper speed, Aserva sat at the back of the ship against the wall to reduce the effects of the G-force, while I sat in the driver's seat. Keeping an eye on behind us, we found three Apex ships tagging along some while back. Luckily they didn't have any guns in space. The Apex ships caught up to us quick enough, but they didn't try to ram us at this speed, instead they flew directly above us, knowing we wouldn't slow down or make any drastic turns going faster than the speed of sound. I hadn't thought of what they were planning at the moment, but it was clear they wanted to tell me in person, as a single armed Apex beamed down right into our ship, I had no idea this was even possible.


	9. Chapter 9 - Destination

Chapter 9 – Destination

The Apex bore a gun in one hand, his attention on me in the pilot's seat, Aserva took the opportunity to take him out with her sword, and one swing was all it took. He disintegrated into a thousand pieces, which shocked me; I didn't want to see that.

"Don't worry, they go back to base, they be cloned and all better, itsss how they work."

Aserva told me, they were even more advanced than I thought; they never ceased to amaze me. But that couldn't be it; I had no doubt that there were more of the guards up in the other space ships waiting to attack.

"Amarus, I help! I travel to other ships and take out enemies!"

"That's too dangerous! We have no idea how many guards could be up there!

I said in contradictory, but Aserva was determined.

"I have to or Apex catch us, we go on ground and we be swarmed, we stay on ship and be swarmed, surprise attack best option!"

She made a point, the Apex may be smart but I doubt they would think where dumb enough to ambush the ambush with one person, but that's exactly why it could work, they won't be ready for an attack, only to attack. I set the navigation as auto-pilot and ran to the back of the ship, which wasn't hard with the G-force pulling me back in seconds. I removed the beam transporter from my wrist and gave it to Aserva.

"Fine, if anything goes wrong use this, it will teleport you back here as long as you're in enough range. We will be stopping at the planets soon, try not to waste any time."

"I know, I be back in a minute!"

She answered, looking at the beam transporter device system, Aserva stepped onto it and I set co-ordinates, using the machine I realised it had located the ships within range and had been able to let us beam to their ship through their beam teleporter. I selected the one above us, and with a bright flash of red light, Aserva was gone. So that's what it looked like, it sort of hurt my eyes with the bright flash. There was no way I could make it back to the seat in the front of the ship, there was too much pressure. I stuck to the back of the ship, other Apex were sure to come, unless Aserva could hold them all off.

The beam struck in the center of the ship, entering the Apex ship I drew my sword, the beam was fast and quite, none of the Apex had seen. Their Transporter was in a small room, with one opening in front of me, peeking out to get a better look at how many there were, I saw they were getting ready to attack our ship again. This time, three Apex, who were highly armed, stood in line preparing to use the transporter. Hugging the wall I waited as the Apex spoke.

"You are to infiltrate the ship, retrieving the device is our first goal. Do not let anything stop it from happening, second, capture the criminals who stole it, if the situation plays out bad, take them out. Head out, men"

Said the supposed captain of the ship, the first Apex warrior entered the small room I was in, before he even knew what hit him, I hit him as hard as I could with my sword, causing him to burst into a million pieces, being sent back to the base to be cloned before his data would be lost forever. The other Apex stood in awe as they watched their friend get destroyed by me.

"It's the Floran girl! Get her!"

Yelled one of the warriors, the two remaining charged at me, each holding a sword and pistol. The first one to attack lunged at my stomach with his sword, jumping up I was able to dodge it, as he looked up to assure he has missed, I brought my sword down on his head in a crashing second, but it deflected off his helmet doing minimal damage. The other guard took the liberty of time to shoot with his gun right at my head, which passed over my forehead as I fell to the ground, just a little too close for comfort. The captain stood back, sure his crew could defeat me, I noticed two other soldiers in the back who were being told to head to our ship to attack, and one more sitting in the pilots chair keeping us steady above the Avian starship. Putting my attention back on the two guards at hand, I jabbed my sword at the one who tried to shoot me, hitting him right in the stomach, swinging around just in time to block another attack from the first guard. It was clear the Apex were stronger than me, the force of his sword on mine was too much and my sword broke free of my fingers, sliding across the floor. But I had an advantage as well, with them wearing armor and heavy swords I was much faster than they were. In just a moment's time I swerved around the Apex that stood before me, dodging a fatal blow at the same time, I ended up behind him. Before he could turn to look at me, I kicked him in the back with all my force, causing him to fall over on his stomach. The other Apex threw a vertical swing of his sword at me, which was easily dodged with a step backwards. I knew I wasn't strong enough to flip the giant ape, but his arm stretched out like that was just too good an opportunity. Giving his arm a tug, he fell over onto his companions back. In just time, I retrieved my sword from the hard, cold ground, just as the captain decided to join the fight.

Behind me I could see the other two Apex head to the teleporter, they still planned to attack our ship. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do, I had already be busy with the captain and his other two guards. Jumping back to dodge the captains first attack with a sword, I landed on the pile of Apex I had knocked down mere seconds ago. Taking the time to give them a strong kick to the head, just to keep them on the ground while I dealt with the captain.


	10. Chapter 10 - All is Expected

Chapter 10 – All is expected

Standing in the back of my ship, an Apex appeared before my very eyes. Did this mean Aserva couldn't handle them? I sure hope not. The Apex glared at me.

"Halt! Put your hands in the air!"

But I was prepared for this to happen. Leaning against the teleporter monitor, I glanced down, and clicked a button on the screen, which just happened to be pre-set to ten meters underneath the ship. The Apex looked down on me his face in shock, almost in that "You wouldn't dare" kind of face, but it was too late, he was gone. Moments later, a second Apex appeared. This one wasn't so suddle though, and charged at me seconds after he got used to his new surroundings.

"Where is the time machine Avian?!"

He screamed while coming closer and closer towards me. But Aserva had already hidden the machine in the back of the space ships locker; he wouldn't find it without having to search the ship, which couldn't happen as long as I remained here. The Apex realised his partner was gone, probably wondering where he was. Carrying a sword he swung at my legs, which I just barely jumped above in time. Side stepping to his left, and out of the corner in the back of the ship, I noticed he avoided an easy opening to attack my head, but instead lowered his center of gravity and took another attempted strike at my feet. From this I gathered he wasn't trying to kill me, they probably planned to capture me and bring me back to their planet; I could use this to my advantage.

I jumped backward, out of range of the sword he tried to hit me with. Lifting a small gun with his other hand he pointed it at my head, seeming quite intimidating.

"Freeze, or I'll kill you, Avian"

It was chilly in the ship. A cool breeze ran down my spine, I had no intention of dying here.

"The names Amarus. And I'm not going to die here. I recommend you put your gun down immediately."

I spoke quietly, no trace of emotion crossed my face, but the cool essence of trickery came across my voice.

"Big words for someone in your position, put your hands up, we won't have any trouble as long as you don't resist. We just want the device back, where is it?"

He answered, cold and dry but very self-aware, I knew he spoke the truth, but I didn't exactly agree to his plans.

"It's in the locker, bottom right underneath a rag."

No emotion entered or exited this room.

"Step out of the way Avian, I will now proceed to retrieve the device."

At this point a grin swept across my face.

"No, I don't think I will. I like where I'm standing actually, it's the perfect spot, not to close to the middle of the ship, yet not totally in the back room. Not on the teleporter, but not in pilots seat. I like it."

"I don't want to fire, but I will if needed otherwise, I warn you once more, step out of the way or I will be forced to use violence!"

I smiled once more at his words; he had no idea what kind of power and strength I had. They may be the most technology advanced race I've ever met, but they weren't always the smartest.

"If you insist."

A moment passed, the Apex closed his eyes for a mere second, in relief he wouldn't have to shoot anyone today. Only to open his eyes and find himself alone. It was strange, for what felt like years, I was gone from the very essence of time and space, for only half a millisecond. The Apex jumped nearly a foot off the grounded, in anticipation and wonder of what had just happened. Looking around he glanced behind himself, to find me sitting there.

I sat on the third step of a ladder that led to the small bedroom above the teleporter. One of my legs stood down on the ground while the other propped up on the first step of the ladder. My right arm stood out, propped with my elbow against my right knee, I held a small grey box in my hand, scattered full of lines and designs that meant nothing to me. I grinned with delight looking down on it, not bothering to even face the Apex.

"I lied."

I stated gleefully.


	11. Chapter 11 - One after the other

Chapter 11 – One after the other

"How did you do that?!"

The Apex said sounding astonished, the way he looked at the small grey cube told me he didn't know what it was, meaning he had never seen the time machine before. Only higher class Apex must have been allowed to lay eyes upon it, which makes sense in the grand scheme of things. The lower class Apex probably didn't even know what this device does.

"From the very beginning there was no chance of you winning this fight, sorry to disappoint."

"That is the device is it not? Hand it over, now! I am still the one with the gun if you seemed to have forgotten, do not attempt to resist."

Slowly I laid my left hand on top the grey cube, enclosing it in-between the palms of my hands.

"It's as I told you, in the storage locker."

Feeling quite highly of myself I removed my left hand from atop the grey cube, where it once sat in the palm of right hand, it stood there no more. The Apex turned his head, spotting the storage locker behind him in the middle room of the ship; he slowly walked towards it while still pointing his gun at me. Sheathing his sword he opened the locker with his free hand, searching for it, he found the time machine exactly where I told him; in the bottom right corner underneath a dirty old rag.

"How did you…?"

He asked; question how it got into the locker when it sat in my hands only seconds ago.

"Do I have to explain?"

"The charades over Avian, put your hands in the air! I demand you tell me what you did."

A moment of silence passed by, I sat there continuing to smile, glaring down at the floor.

"As you wish then. Before you even arrived on this ship I used the little grey box you hold in your hand, which just happens to be a time machine, to travel to this very point in time."

The Apex looked down at the grey box in mystery, wondering if my words had been true.

"At which point, I placed the time machine in the locker, using it to travel back to my original time line here, leaving it in the future. Still having the time machine that hadn't yet been put in the locker, I kept it in my pocket up until recently. When I disappeared and reappeared behind you, I was actually into the future where I set it in the locker and left it, returning me to my time line where I ended up behind you. Having closed the box inside my hands, I set it to follow the timeline in which it was placed in the locker rather than the one it stood in, in-between my hands. Having the time machine placed inside the locker, I left it there to be found by you."

"Seems like a lot of work, I don't understand why you did all of this. Tell me."

His hands shook as he clenched his gun facing towards me. I remained calm and continued with my explanation.

"Because all I needed was for you to touch it. The moment you laid hands on the device, my victory was assured."

"How so?"

"Oh, I'm sure you will understand soon enough, in time we all start to understand. In fact, in approximately eight…seven…six…"

By the sound of me counting, the Apex looked down at the time machine, finding a small black circle strapped to it, counting down every second; he knew it was a bomb. The Apex realised that very second he had been outsmarted.

"How did you activate it? Why are you doing this, you will blow up the whole ship!"

He asked sounding enraged. Five, four.

"We Avians aren't that undeveloped you know, all it took was a bit of Apex DNA to activate the timer, which I strapped to it as soon as I got off your planet."

Three, two.

"You're still going to die here!"

"You think I'm that stupid?"

Once more a grin ran across my face as I pulled the handle of the door that separated the teleporter room and the main room closed.

One.

A small explosion just enough to rattle the door I leaned up against occurred just after I closed it. I then happily opened the door, where I found the time machine sitting peacefully on the ground where nothing but sparkles of the Apex's data that was being sent back to the base to be cloned this second. Minor damage of ash and burn marks were across the floor and walls of the ship, but nothing that couldn't be cleaned. Retrieving the time machine, I felt pretty proud of myself.

I went back to the end of the ship, where I made it just in time to see that the Apex ships had stopped following us, and began to head back to their planet in the other direction. This means only one thing, Aserva beat the Apex. I turned around only to find myself face to face with Aserva, who had used the beam transporter just in time to re-board the ship.

"Assserva destroy all Apex on ship!"

"We did it, were escaped the Apex!"

I hugged Aserva, as we shouted happily in our success. Our destination had come into sight only moments later, we were lucky we took care of the Apex before we began to slow down or they would know exactly which planet we were on. This way they only knew an approximate location, and would likely have to search many planets thoroughly before finding us. Returning to the pilot's seat of the ship, we prepared to slow down just above the planet's atmosphere.

"Amarus getting used to G-force of ship?"

Realising it actually wasn't as strong anymore, or maybe it was just something you have to get used to. Another accomplishment, two in one day this has to be some sort of record.

"Our main goal here is to find more fuel, most likely coal. On another note I'd like to try and find a new weapon, I lost my spear back in the fight."

We hovered above the planet, which was a beautiful bright blue colour. Making our way to the beam transporter pad at the back of the ship, we stepped on top of it and I readied the location system to land us safely on the ground.

"It's an adventure?"

Aserva said still grinning, we had already had so much fun it was hard to believe it had only been one day. Sliding the grey cube back into the ships locker, I locked it this time so no one else would get in, and set it only to open if Aserva or I were the ones trying to get inside.

"It's an adventure."

I replied, beaming us down onto the soft dirt covered landscape of our latest discovery.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Glitch

Chapter 12 – The Glitch

The blue soil was soft under my feet, trees that rose over fifty feet tall decorated the landscape with a variety of colours. The leaves shone purple and green, the wind was cool and a gentle drift of snow fell from the sky, landing so quietly on the ground. Some piles of snow glistened in the sunlight off the branches of tree; the tempeture was colder than it usually was. I short walk to the north was a town visible from our standing place.

"It cold here, Assserva don't like cold."

I didn't really like the cold either, as both of us were wearing very light clothing, and were definitely not prepared for a snow storm.

"Let's head to the town over there, I bet they have some ship fuel and a source of heat to sit around."

I said. Aserva nodded in agreement and we began to cross the fields, the snow became more and more recent as we journeyed on; until which point there wasn't a spot in sight that wasn't covered in white. My feet felt like icicles, but in the bright side we were almost there. Upon reaching the near outside of the town, we realised it was more of a castle then any village I've seen. Tall stone walls surrounded the outside of the area. The giant walls went for miles, inside them stood a castle that was bigger than any architectural building I have ever seen in my life. There was a wooden bridge open near us, leading through passed the walls, connected by chains at the end to close the bridge when needed to.

"Should we enter?"

I asked, sort of concerned. I have never seen this sort of living arrangement inside, and hadn't the slightest idea what kind of species were living inside it.

"Of course, this what we come here for."

We were out of range for the hand held beam transporter to beam us back to the ship, meaning all we had in defence was Aserva's sword. Approaching the bridge I stopped to see if it was stable before crossing, a small river separated the village walls and the ground we stood on. The water seemed safe enough, however dipping my toe in it I realised that they had been using there environment to their advantage; it was freezing. Aserva didn't seem to care as much; she was a lot more trusting. Walking directly across the bridge, I assured myself nothing bad will happen, and followed her to the village and castle behind the great stone walls. However, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched.

The inside of the walls was a lot warmer, snow was less common and only the occasional patch was across the land. Between the castle and the walls were quite a few small houses, which were probably for citizens. Having a better look at the castle, it was even more magnificent than before. Made of smooth stone, many towers and rooms full of windows and guard towers were spread across the castle in a perfectly symmetrical fashion.

Taking another glance at the villager's houses and yards, I noticed a few of the villagers out in their lawns, moving snow and planting crops for harvest. A few of which had stopped to stare at us, in general the villagers seemed odd. They were made of metal, and machines, in many different shapes and sizes they looked hard. Their eyes were lights that shone faintly in the daylight; I bet it would look weird if it were night and all you could see was their eyes. The villagers probably were wondering why we had just walked into their town, which was to be expected.

"Let's ask around if anyone has any ship fuel, there's got to be a shop around somewhere."

"And blacksssmith, Amarus need new weapon remember?"

Aserva replied to my statement. I walked up to one of the villagers who looked at me funny.

"Hey, excuse me is there a fuel shop around…? My spaceship is running low."

The robot man took a second to reply

"No, no fuel shops around. However the king does have fuel for the guard ships in defence. We have no need for a fuel shop as we have no spaceships."

No matter how helpful this information was, I was almost certain it would not be easy to meet with the king, let alone convince him to give fuel to another race for their spaceship.

"May I ask what species you are? I am Amarus of the Avians, and my friend over there is Aserva of the Flora. We came here in search of fuel for our ship, as well as a new weapon; as I lost my last one in a battle."

The robot continued to plant seeds in his lawn, occasionally looking up to see me.

"It is a dangerous universe; one would be wise to carry a weapon in a state of defence out there. I am a Glitch, we are the robot-people, and if you are looking for a new weapon I suggest you talk to the blacksmith who makes weapons for the king's guards. He lives just on the outskirts of the castle in a small shop."

"Thank you, ill head there next. Have a pleasant day."

"You as well, but if you plan on meeting the king I would be wary if I were you. The castle guards don't usually like visitors."

The Glitch said as we started are walk to the blacksmith. Great, my suspicions were true and getting to have a conversation with a king would not be easy. The villagers seemed happy enough, there houses seemed older, most made of old wood and sticks. Wooden fences and chicken pens filled the area as well, for a village of robots they did not seem very high-tech.

We reached the blacksmith's shop several moments later; after passing several odd looks from different villagers. The shop was small and made of wood the same as all the other building besides the castle. The shop had red banners, many of which were tattered and ripped, that showed logos and signs that probably meant something to the Glitch. Aserva and I approached the counter that blocked costumers and civilians from entering his workspace. A Glitch wearing heavy thick clothing soon realised people were at his shop and came over to see what we wanted. The back end of the shop was full of dirt and dust, along with several appliances that were used to craft all different kinds of things. Daggers, short swords, long swords, broad swords, great swords, spears, shields, axes and pickaxes all sat around in piles, finished work of the man that stood before us.

"Hello, can I help you?"

The blacksmith said, he was a very big Glitch, all sorts of circuitry and wires went on throughout him, and a small piece of cloth wrapped around his right arm that I suspected to be a wound.

"Yes, we are in search of a new weapon, preferable a spear. Something strong that will hold up in fights, and is quite lengthy but short enough to fit on my back comfortably."

The blacksmith turned around and scrimmaged through his piles of weaponry, collecting a few specific spears that fit my list. Walking back over to the counter he looked over top it with his sharp green lit eyes, estimating my height to select the best fitting spear I supposed. Taking two the spear he had picked up and laying them back in their original pile, he sat the remaining spear on the counter for me to inspect.

"Alright, this is my suggestion for your next weapon. Crafted with the finest metal, it will withstand many blows. Its sharp point can be dangerous to any enemy, and can easily pierce through most armor."

I put my hands underneath the wooden handle of the spear which had a grip near the base of it. The wooden stand was smooth and finely cut, with a sharp metal point shaped with jagged edges near the bottom to deal a lot of damage on the foe. The metal piece had two green stripes going down from the tip down on either side. Lifting it up I found it to be quite light, and nicely fitting on my hands. It was about from the ground to my shoulders in length, which would fit excellently on my back.

"How much is it?"

I had to ask as it was quite an important factor in buying a new item. The Glitch took a moment to consider, and then responded when he had decided on a price.

"Twelve-hundred pixels?"

My jaw dropped at the sound of this price, this was enough to put me flat broke.


	13. Chapter 13 - Peace and War

Chapter 13 – Peace and War

I looked over at Aserva, questioning whether I should buy it. Checking how many pixels I had altogether, I had around thirteen-hundred. Pixels were a sort of currency, used to buy goods and appliances. Each pixel was like a small square coin, that was a very bright yellow colour and had a small crest engraved into it.

"Should I buy it…? It's a lot of money and I don't know if I will be getting any more pixels for a while."

"This what we come here for no? Assserva thinks Amarus should buy spear, after all Amarus need weapon."

She made a point, but I definitely would not be able to afford to through this spear away like I did the last one. Pulling out the pixels I laid them down on the counter where the blacksmith stood.

"Alright then, I'll take the spear please."

The Glitch counted the pixels, some of the coins were worth a hundred, some ten, someone, etc. ensuring he had collected his twelve-hundred pixels, he picked up the spear and handed it to me with the handle facing my direction.

"Was a pleasure doing business with you Avian, come back anytime."

He spoke pleasant words but I knew I couldn't afford to buy anything else with only one hundred pixels left over. On different means, I still needed to meet the king about the fuel issue.

"Excuse me; do you think I could ask you a question about the castle?"

I asked the blacksmith, his eyebrows narrowed and his words became slightly grimmer.

"Sure, go ahead."

"I have business with the king, and I need to get a meeting with him. Is there any way I could meet with him today?"

A moment of silence swept over, and the blacksmith seemed amused with my question.

"Ha, the castle doesn't take well the visitors. I highly doubt the guards will even let you past the entrance doors. And if you do get past, the king will likely have no interest in meeting you."

Questioning his remark, the Glitch turned around and walked back to his work, continuing forging swords and axes as usual. Before we left the shop, he stopped banging his hammer and picked up a strap from nearby.

"I almost forgot, this comes with the spear Avian."

As he tossed the strap over to me, it was dark brown with fine gold threads in it and a buckle that could be adjusted to fit around your body. I put the strap around me that went from my right shoulder to my left hip. The spear fit nicely on my back, and we left the shop to the sound of a hammer smashing down on a soon to be sword. Back in the city, the doors into the castle were nearby, but were still being guarded, as expected to be.

"How should we go about getting into the castle? It's a huge structure, I don't know how we will get inside without getting stopped, if the guards are really as mean as the villagers say they are."

"Why don't we go speak to guardsss, it wouldn't hurt to sssay hello."

Aserva made a point; they can't arrest us for walking by the doors. It was worth a shot, and this way we would find out what we are dealing with. We walked over to the castle doors, following a small dirt path that brought us directly there. Two guards remained standing in front of the castle doors, the doors were almost double the side of me, they were tall with a velvet red cover, and gold lines running across them in beautiful decoration and design. The guards were tall, both wielding long swords that were smooth and shiny, and a red shield that bore a crest in their other hand. Their armor was silver and shiny as the rest of the equipment, wearing helmets and a full body suit; the armor appeared to be flawless.

"Good evening guards, we are here to meet the king, is there any chance we could-"

I got cut off by one of the guards, their voice was lagging, but they were very aware.

"Halt, visitor! Not another step closer to the castle, or your head comes off!"

That was not expected. Ok so they we as mean as everyone said they were, I guess when you have two different species come to your village asking to meet the one in charge, it makes sense for them to say no. but either way we had to meet the king, or at least the person who has all the fuel. Aserva and I took a few steps backwards and faced the other way than the guards.

"So what should we do now? The guards will definitely not let us in, and we can't just barge our way through, there has got to be hundreds of other patrol guards inside the castle."

I spoke, wary of what to do; I wasn't sure any other approach to get inside the castle.

"Assserva thinks that if we take out guards without othersss knowing, we can sssteal their armor and get into castle looking like them."

It was the best idea we had so far, but even then how were we supposed to take on fully armed Glitch with only a sword and a spear, even though we could handle the Apex those shields they carry will block any attacks we through, even if we are fast. The guards were most likely getting suspicious of us talking quietly with our backs to them.

"But how are we supposed to take out the guards, it won't be as easy as the Apex were, they didn't have shields. Plus we had the time machine with us."

Aserva contemplated this predicament for a moment; she seemed strapped for ideas as well. There wasn't much that could be done; we weren't sure if we could take on the guards, let alone make sure no one else sees. We had to get inside the castle, we could sneak in through a window but it would be awfully hard to scale the walls.

"Well we will just have to try; Assserva thinks we can do it. We are not weak with our weapons."

It was the only plan we had, I didn't want to be mean or cause any more destruction, but we had to do what was needed and if they wouldn't let us pass through the gate, then we would have to make our way. We stepped up the front steps to the doors, and the guards shouted for us to leave once more, but we had already planned on not turning back. This was our decision, and we had just better hope the king is a nicer guy than his men.


	14. Chapter 14 - Every King has a Crown

Chapter 14 – Every King has a Crown

My right foot burst from the ground in a dash towards the guards. Excited for battle, the guards raised their shields in defence. Having pulled my brand new spear off my back, I wielded it with two hands and prepared to make my first attack. Aserva drew her sword and ran towards the other security guard, this duel became one on one as we entered our own fight. Prepared for impact the guard I ran towards stood in a ready position with his shield covering his head to his waist. Gripping my spear with all my strength I jabbed it in his direction as hard as I could, but the guard had stepped backwards to reduce shock from the impact. To my unexpected surprise, a magnificent white beam charged up and released as an energy ball from the tip of my spear, mere seconds after I attacked. Was my spear some sort of magic weapon or enchanted item? I hadn't the slightest idea, but this worked for me. It worked well indeed.

"The Avian has a magic weapon!"

Yelled the guard I was in combat with, the opposite guard glanced over, and seemed almost scared now. The distraction was perfect timing, giving Aserva just the amount of time to land a blow with her sword to the guard's ribs. It wasn't enough to break armor as the sword was old, but it had to sting and would reduce his reflexes greatly. Drawing my attention back to the guard at hand, I swooped backward and dodged a horizontal swing from his sword, as he retreated behind his shield once more to deflect any counter attacks.

"Sssince when is weapon magic?"

Aserva yelled some feet away as we continue to fight. I jabbed my spear once more at the guard, missing entirely. Now that I knew it was there I could actually feel a small rumble inside the handle of the spear, I could feel it happening like a waterfall rumbling in the distance, as the energy wave released from the tip of the spear like a dragon relieving fire from its lungs, it smashed down on the guards shield shocking him crazy, leaving to trace of damage except a very shaky guard.

"I have no idea! The blacksmith never mentioned this! But I can't complain this works great!"

I screamed back, quickly jumping back into the zone as the guard attempted another hit with his sword.

"Doesss electricity runs out?"

"I don't think so, I sure hope not!"

I said before having to leap in the opposite direction of Aserva in order to dodge a fatal blow. In retaliation I jabbed my spear at the guard, and before he could raise his sword the energy blast made contact with his body. The Glitch wobbled around and fell to the ground in panic, not a scratch on him except a faint trail of smoke flew off from his armor.

"One down!"

I yelled to Aserva, the guard she was battling realised he was outnumbered, and if he stays he would fall, same as his partner. He turned and tried to run back into the castle where he would be safe, but this was a failed attempt from the start as Aserva and I were faster than him. With a bolt of energy to the back, the guard began to tremble, unable to coordinate his feet with the ground. Using the side of her sword, Aserva smacked the guard's helmet, ringing out as he fell to the dirt beneath him.

"Well that was easier than expected! This spear's nice surprise certainly did help, and it left no damage on the armor."

"Now we sssneak inside castle!"

Aserva replied, we removed the guard's metal armor leaving them in their regular cloths that seemed to be red and grey with Glitch symbols across them. We put the armor on, and it covered most of us, it would make it a lot easier to sneak past other guards and enter the throne room where the king would likely be. With that, we opened the castle door, having to push with all our might we got inside. The hallway was long and the ground was a fine marble stone, polished and shiny, almost enough to see your own reflection in it. The hall split two ways in front of us, to the left and to the right. Several doors were scattered across the walls leading to unknown rooms and chambers. Aserva started heading left; I guess she had decided which way to go already. Although neither of us knew where any of these halls led. We walked down the hall passing many doors and paintings that hung on the wall, banners of red and gold covered most of the interior and suits of armor covered the ground. The hall seemed unusually deserted, and we decided to try one of the doors since walking forwards was getting us nowhere. I put my hand on a doorknob to the right of us, and opened it slowly; no one had appeared to be inside. Pushing the door open all the way it revealed a small staircase leading up a floor.

"Should we go up?"

I asked, I was lost so I was leaving the directions and decisions to Aserva.

"Sssure, King likely not on firssst floor."

So we walked up the staircase, in bent around in a spiral leading to the second floors hallway, which was almost identical to the first, except this hall had more guards in it. Peering around the edge of the doorway, I was able to identify three guards down the right side, and around five to the left.

"If we keep our heads down the guards shouldn't be able to tell we are Glitch."

I said, Aserva nodded in response and we pulled down our helmets to cover our faces. I never imagined it would be so nerve-racking to walk down a hall, but when any second someone could find out who you are, it sure didn't make you feel comfortable. Stepping out of the door we advanced to the right, walking at a slow pace in a single file line of each other, we tried not to attract anyone's attention. As we came upon the three guards who stood together talking amongst themselves, I overheard something one of the guards was talking about.

"Yea, I spotted a small army of the Apex in the distance just a short time ago, looked to me like they were heading in the direction of the castle also."

One of the guards said, speaking fairly calm. The Glitch must not have any ill feelings to the Apex, which is a good and a bad thing. If a war broke out it would be simple enough to sneak off without being spotted.

"Wonder what it is they want, hope it isn't trouble. I don't feel like fighting today, I just want to head home and have a nice dinner with the family."

"Me too, but I had better head back to my patrol station now, got to keep an eye on those Apex, if anything weird breaks out ill be sure to let you guys know."

And that was the last the guards spoke, two of them turned and started to walk in the opposite direction we were headed, and the last began to walk some meters behind us.

"Hello, fellow guards, where is thou's destination?"

The guard said to us, sounding very formal. Aserva and I turned around to face the guard, we couldn't do anything suspicious but at the same time we couldn't just ignore him. Aserva glanced up at me, she was smart. Although I wasn't happy about it, we were both smart enough to realise if Aserva talked to them, her lisp would give it away, the Glitch and Floran people have very different ways of speaking. I hurried to think of something to say, horrified that the guard would realise we aren't Glitch, in the center of their castle there wasn't a chance of fighting them off, and escaping would be difficult when there were little to no windows, and we were on the second floor.

"Just off to check on the wall patrol, we heard there was some recklessness going on near the base of the walls earlier today."

At this point I felt like I was about ready to cry, but I stood still and hoped the guard wouldn't notice.

"Ah, happens all the time. Well then, I should be back to my station. Good day."

With that he walked passed us and further down the hall. The guard has a bow on his back, making it easy enough to connect the long range weapon with the patrol station somewhere higher up, such as the roof. So saying a destination somewhere near the ground would lower the chance of further walking together and more discussion. A turn in the hall came about, and we decided to follow it heading right instead of continuing forward. Someway down the hallway, we stumbled across huge doors, made of wood and engraved with many patterns and designs similar to the ones of the banners and flags, this would be an excellent spot for a throne room, and it was way to classy to be a regular room. This had to be it, we were almost sure of it. I looked over at Aserva, and then we both opened the doors.


	15. Chapter 15 - Miraculous

Chapter 15 – Miraculous

One hour earlier

"My lord, they just won't listen we are going to have to do something and I fear resorting to violence may be the only option."

Shouted a patrol guard as he barged through the doors at the end of the hallway.

"We have tried reasoning with them, but it's no use we have nothing further that they want!"

Spoke a guard who stood at my right side.

"Buy them off a little longer, ready arms if necessary and be prepared. Ready the airships as well these creatures are capable of flight as well."

I said, I didn't want to cause destruction, but there may be no other choice that will protect my people.

"Yes, my lord."

They said, and all but two guards left the room, leaving me in silence to make a decision. Looking down at my throne, I knew there wasn't a way to get out of this without loss. The room was decorated in banners and flags, bookshelf's and tables lined with candles and equiseta food covered the sides of the walls and a long red carpet flew from my seating position to the doors at the end of the long room.

"Dura, calculations. Approximately how many of them are there?"

A small robot made of old steel and iron pieces sat at my left, who began to initialize my request.

"Approximately one-hundred your highness, they appear to be in some sort of flight controlled air craft, and quite heavily armed."

The small Glitch responded, the robot was barely tall enough to see over the edge of my chair to see my face, he was useless in battle. But that is not what he was made for, Dura was a calculations bot, he could determine many things others couldn't, his voice was high like a child, but his body was old, he had been created many years ago.

"Estimate, Dura… How long until we have enough men to protect the village?"

"Estimating… around three hours estimated."

"I see… And about how long until they are expected to attack?"

The bot was silent for a moment; whatever was going on inside his tiny little head was something no other Glitch in this village could dream of. Hundreds of thousands of pixels had been put into keeping Dura from falling apart; he was a key part of this castle, as small as he was.

"About one and a half hours, your highness."

I turned to look behind my throne, where a giant painting of myself stood hanging on the wall. It was a picture of me from many years ago, sitting on my throne as I continue to do today. I was made of the finest gold pieces, created from the beginning of my existence to be a leader. A small, gold crown sat on my head in this painting, with jewels of different colours placed around it. I lifted my hand to touch the very gold I thought about, as it sparkled in the light of the throne room. A crown was a symbol, to kings and to villagers. It meant "I am here, and I am meant to be here. I stand to rule, through peace or war, I stand to protect my citizens." It was a duty, every king has a crown; and this was mine.

There would not be time to set up for a battle, we shared are technology with those creatures in return for their help, to protect us as well as accompany us around the galaxy. Undeveloped species however, stay undeveloped. For their numbers are far greater than ours on this planet, it was up to me to find a solution. We would easily be overrun if they were to attack us now, but were going to have to try now aren't we. The Glitch are a strong race, and we will not be taken down easily.

"Knight, bring me my weapons."

The Glitch standing to my right left the room, returning with a long golden sword that shimmered so brightly it was almost blinding. Accompanied by a red and gold shield made of the best iron pixels could buy.

"Here you are my lord."

The knight kneeled at the bottom of a small stairway, only three stairs tall that lead to the base of my throne. I stood, lifting my heavy metal apart from the soft throne where I usually sat. Walking down the steps I claimed the sword and shield, I will fight beside the Glitch. And we will win, even if we have to make a miracle happen. Turning passed the guard I continued to walk, moving towards the door at the end of the hall.

"Prepare supplies, ready the guards. We are going to have to fight them off if all means necessary, and we will have to be ready in less than an hour."

"But sir that's impossible! "

I continued walking, reaching the halfway point down the hallway. The long red cloak I wore brushed behind me in the wind of my walking, and then something unexpected happened. A quarter of the halls length from the door, the two wooden doors burst open, faster than ever intended. I stood with my hand on my sword, facing two guards in full armor.


	16. Chapter 16 - Life is just a Game

Chapter 16 – Life is just a Game

Standing before the king himself, I stopped in my tracks. Taking a moment to glance over at Aserva, who glanced back.

"Your Majesty, we need more fuel for the ships, we were hoping you could give us some, it's quite important."

I said, trying to sound like a Glitch, but I don't think it was working.

"There's always more fuel in the boiler room, guard."

Oh… now this was awkward I had no idea what to say next.

"Ah, right. I will be off there then. Thank you your majesty."

I turned and was just about to head out the door, when the king spoke once more. Drawing a line right through us leaving undetected and getting caught.

"You… you two aren't really guards here are you? I can tell."

So, so close. Aserva and I turned around once more, to face the king again. Removing my helmet from my head, I said

"How did you know?"

"My guards always called me 'my lord'"

He replied, we were found out from the beginning.

"Well, you are correct. I am Amarus, an Avian who happened to land here, and this is Aserva, a Floran."

I turned and looked over at Aserva again, who also removed her helmet.

"Well, if you two are not guards, then just what are you exactly?"

"Adventurers, I guess you could say. Going wherever the universe takes us, throughout time and space our journey always finds us."

The king paused; everyone gets caught up on the word "time."

"Time? How exactly did you pull that off?"

"Long story, but in the meanwhile we need fuel. Our ship ran out and we are currently stuck here, hoping you could give us a hand."

More silence fell, the knight behind the king seemed ready to attack on command.

"Most certainly. But you can't expect it for free do you? No, pixels aren't what I mean. I have plenty of those, I mean help. The weapons you carry tell me you can fight, and the armor of guards you wear only assures me you're strong."

This offer seemed decent, but more work. Also if the Apex were really on this planet, we will have to get off of it as soon as possible.

"Help with what exactly?"

"Protecting the village. The Glitch recently shared are technology with another species living on this planet, after finding out a way to communicate with them. In return for protection and help, we gave them devices and utilities. However the technology seems to have effected their brains, and they have turned into an ultimate war machine. We fear they will attack us, within the next hour, and warriors are what we need right now."

"What kind of species are we talking about here?"

"You would have to see to understand…"

This was eerie, but we had no other choice. If we didn't get that fuel, we would be caught by the Apex. If we attacked the castle to get the fuel, we would be overpowered. So defeating the castles enemy would be are best bet of survival. After a few more questions were asked, the king assured as much fuel as we could carry for our ship, and we agreed to try and save them. The king told us we could see the ship off in the distance from the roof of the castle, so that was where we were going to go. Exiting the throne room we were given directions on how to get there, and followed them up each staircase.

"Assserva wants to ssstab something!"

She claimed, Flora were a violent race, and I guess heading off to a battle only made it worse for Aserva. I was curious still about the Florans, I wanted to know more but now was not a good time. Reaching the top floor of the castle we found a balcony, behind glass doors covered in painted pictures of birds and flowers. Opening the doors we stepped into a cold breeze from the north, and we searched the skies for the enemy. Far off in the distance, we spotted a ship that was very long and circular, in a manner I have never seen before. It appeared well armed, but didn't look like it could travel very fast.

"We've been calling it a U.F.O, stands for Unidentified Flying Object."

Said a guard who had walked up behind us, glaring at the star ship almost in disgust.

"I've never seen anything like it, why does it look so different?"

I asked the guard, he seemed to know a lot more about it than I did.

"The species are very different from us, the design is meant to take on powerful blows and still remain functional. There are hundreds of them in there."

I turned back to the ship way off, that was the enemy.

"Aserva, let's go."

We stepped around the guard, leaving the balcony. The guard and king has both realised, we had no intention of fighting this enemy beside them. We planned on taking it out, on our own.

"Just don't die out there, Avian."

I heard the Glitch mumble, as we left the castle in silence.


	17. Chapter 17 - Help Doesn't Always Come

Chapter 17 – Help Doesn't Always Come

A gust of wind violently blew across my face once more, causing are hair to blow to the east as we crossed the field separating the enemy from the castle. The grass bent and blew in the wind, shimmering in the light of the sun as the clouds across this almost perfect day battled the sun for the sky. Snow glimmered and twinkled, it was not as deep as we got further and further away from the village, but it still came up to our ankles. Looking up I imagined, infinite amounts of battles, wars, friendships, disasters, and many other things, were happening out there in this endless universe right now. Walking side by side we came closer and closer to the unknown enemy ship, glaring at whatever could be inside, it was the perfect mood for such a battle.

"How do you think we should go about taking down this ship?"

"We blow it up, big metal ssships explode."

Aserva replied, she sounded almost angry, but excited at the same time. Fighting and killing was in her blood.

"There's probably around fifty to two hundred in there, if we are going to blow it up somehow getting inside is our main priority."

"Makesss sssense. But Amarusss no worry, Amarusss never have to board ssship. Assserva has a plan."

I wish she had let me in on it earlier, but she refused to answer any questions I asked. All she would tell me is that I had to get the ships attention, when we got close enough. Tracking through the snow, we approached the area it flew, about ten feet away from directly underneath it.

"Ssstay here and dissstract the ssship. Defeat any attackersss, Assserva take care of the rest."

She said, and bid me goodbye until further notice. The ship was colossal; from this point of view it appeared to be about a hundred meters in diameter, but maybe only four meters in height. I contemplated how to go about getting the ships attention, and only one idea came to mind. After a quick search of the area, I found a handful of rocks. Holding the pile in my left hand, I grabbed one of the rocks with my right, and gripped it tightly in-between my fingers. I then leaned backward, and hurled the rock upward at the ship causing it to land on the top of the circular ship with a thud. I waited, but nothing happened. Repeating the process two more times I got the disappointing thud one after the other. But on the third time, something else rang through my ears as the rock hit the ship. A loud smashing noise rang out followed by what sounded like an alarm system; bingo.

Unsure of what I was supposed to do next, I stood there waiting. Whatever was inside was probably going to come out, and I'm guessing that's when Aserva planned to go in. The ship didn't have any weapons on the exterior, but didn't doubt it wasn't the same on the interior. After a few moments of silence, the ship lowered a few feet and a small light began to shine through the bottom, blinding my eyes for no longer than a second. I stood in awe, desperately wanting to see for myself what these war crazed creatures we were up against looked like, and before me in the middle of the shining light; came the first one. It materialized from thin air; it was small, with slick black skin covering its body except for its stomach which was as white as the snow. It appeared as a bird, with a small orange beak incapable of major biting damage, and small wings that didn't look near strong enough to fly. Having no legs, it waddled a few steps closer to me on its little webbed feet. It wore a metal piece connected from the back of the creatures head to its eye, where a small glass piece covered its left eye. Opening its small beak, it made a loud quaking noise, it was very high frequency and almost made me want to cover my ears; the creature was communicating but in its own language. Seconds later the device attached to its head beeped and a blue light flashed, followed by a translation of the animal's words.

"What do you want, what is the reason of you being here? Enemies will be destroyed, we shall not show mercy."

The translator voice coming from the device sounded almost exactly like a Glitch, it was rather obvious this was their technology being used before me.

"What kind of species are you? I want to know more about you, why are you threatening the Glitch castle after they shared so much with you?"

My questions were followed by more quacking, but I only waited for the translation part of the words. Whatever Aserva was doing, I had hoped she would do it soon. Every minute I stood here being glared at by an alien made me feel more and more uneasy.

"We are the Zurian, pests shall be eliminated. Information from the Zurian shall not be shared with anyone, now prepare yourself scum."

I had heard the name before, yes we were taught of these creatures back in school when I was just a child. Zurian roughly translated through an ancient language to the word "penguin" but they were thought to have been extinct for centuries! It's insane what you will find out in the universe, and I stood before an extinct species, a Penguin! The thought amazed me, but amazement didn't last long when the Zurian prepared himself to kill me. The light which bore from the bottom of the U.F.O continued to shine its beam onto the penguin, and making some signal with his right wing the Zurian must have requested weapons from others above. Materialising perfectly on him fit a small green helmet. Covered in camouflage designs and buckles that hung down the side. In his right hand appeared a gun that was almost as big as he was, coated in the same green the Zurian was now holding a rocket launcher, this was not good news for me.


	18. Chapter 18 - Guns and Bows

Chapter 18 – Guns and Bows

A gust of wind blew the snow in my face, tingling as the cold air attempted to freeze me over. Stepping out of the bushes that looked like giant snowballs I found a hill just a short distance behind the starship. The snow froze my ankles as I wore no shoes, but I climbed it reaching the top in a matter of minutes. Although I didn't want to, I kneeled down and layed on my stomach to avoid detection of the enemy. Waiting for Amarus to make a distraction, I readied my sword for battle. I wanted to stab every single one of the enemy. I wanted to obliterate them all, it was just an un-resistible urge I felt before any battle would occur, and I couldn't fight it; so I let it take over.

A small crashing noise rang through my ears, and i waited to see if this was the best moment to go. A window atop the ship smashed as a rock went crashing through it, setting off alarms and raising awareness, Amarus found a perfect way to drag all the attention to his direction. I stood up on both feet, learning forward and bending my knees slightly preparing to jump. With a little kick start I leaped from the mountain to the roof of the ship. Flying through the air I felt like a goddess, now i was the one passing judgement. Slamming down on the roof I landing on one knee, not making too much noise as my body was made of plants and vines. The metal was hard and cold, absorbing the winter air from the outside. The broken window in the center of the roof would make an excellent entrance, approaching it found several pieces of glass sticking up but it was nothing I couldn't avoid. I sat on the edge of the window and put my feet dangling through to the inside, a small red chair sat in the middle surrounded by monitors and gadgets that meant nothing to me. The air was much warmer on the inside of the ship, i crouched on the small chair and without hesitation jabbed my sword into the monitor, which created a satisfying noise of sparks and smoke that flew from the keyboards and up into the sky above. Followed by a quacking noise that confused me, it was not coming from the monitor. Behind the chair was a three step staircase leading to the inner workings of the ship, where a Zurian stood aiming his gun at my face, a blue light shone followed by and translation.

"Intruders! Exterminate the intruders!"

I've seen a Zuri before; they are small, strong, and have a wet smooth skin, but best of all, there delicious. My mouth opened wide revealing fangs sharp as nails, letting out a massive scream that could be heard for miles, terrifying the poor creature before me. I could be frightening whenever I wanted to be. Jumping up on the monitor behind me, I dodged a bullet that went straight underneath me, and into the monitor I stood on. Meer seconds passed and my blade had pierced the Zurian, and life drained away before me.

"I'll deal with you later; I have othersss to attend to."

I mumbled under my breath as I stepped over the Zuri, and walked down the few steps into the main room. The air was cold and thick in here, multiple rooms of small halls flooded the ship, which was just to small forcing me to bend my knees to stand because the Zurians only reach up to my waist. Alarms rung off from the roof and after taking a few small steps down this overly cramped hallway I came to face two other Zurians, both armed.

"Fire at will."

Said one of the Zuri, let's see whose faster. Breaking my foot off the ground I bound into a full blown sprint towards the two Zuri, a sound rang out and a stinging sensation burst through my leg; I was hit. However stupid these creatures are, they are smart enough to know one thing, I'm a plant. Plants don't bleed idiots. Stabbing my sword through the hard dense skin of the one on the right, the Zurian on the left turned and pointed his gun at my eyes. Sword being occupied, I took time to brag a little, and smashed the head of the gun in-between my teeth, and swung my neck in the other direction pulling the Zurian who just wouldn't let go, down onto the ground. Removing my sword I quickly finished him off, my jaw had dropped open and eyes feeling red I was overly consumed in death. It was so much fun, excitement; it overwhelmed me I wanted it never to end, for them to just keep on coming. My grass like hair tangled around me, panting I continued on down another hallway.

"Send five more men to ground, hold off the other opponent, get another twenty on the one onboard. Im going to look for the Floran, she's armed and dangerous do not let your guard down men, we cannot let her damage any more of the ship. Let's obliterate!"

The five soldiers materialized standing on a huge beam ray machine, just in time to miss my grand entrance. The thin metal door between us broke down as my foot went through it, and I walked in ready for combat. These little war derived monsters are going to stop here, id admit I'm not much better, but I don't attack for no reason.

"Letsss have sssome fun Zurian!"

I said between breaths, shock in his eyes flowed over, he knew his destiny from that point forward; he was going to die here.

"So you came after all, saves me the trouble of looking for you Floran."

Wielding a sword as tall as he was, he prepared for combat, knowing a gun is not effective on me.

"Letsss dance"


	19. Chapter 19 - The Heat of the Moment

Chapter 19 – The Heat of the Moment

The star ship shrieked from my destruction of the central monitors, swerving up and down struggling to stay in the air. A clashing noise rang through the hallways as the captain of the Zurian brought his sword down on my left arm, but my sword slid beside it not a moment to spare; leaving my arm attached and in well function for now. With both arms and sword occupied, I took advantage of my feet to land a blow to his stomach. Leaving me to sit on the ground up against a wall, I stood up slowly.

"You're good with a sword, Floran. But putting up a good fight, I can see you live up to your culture, you savage beast."

The translator said, this only made me angrier.

"Floransss are nothing compared to the Zurian race, Floran doesn't attack for any reason, Floran honor sacrifice and use every bone that they can. Zuri kill only for fun!"

I yelled, swinging my short rusted sword over my head and down onto the Zurians, who reflected it with his sword and went from a stab at my stomach, which was deflected by the handle of my sword.

"Ha, your immature species hasn't even evolved enough to speak without that speech impairment. I bet you can't even talk in first person can you?"

Screaming in rage I swung at his feet, causing him to jump to avoid fatal wounds. Knowing he would do this I had prepared my left fist, and let it flow into his stomach with all my strength.

"Zurian is not one to talk, you never speak ill of Floran again, Assserva will make sssure of that."

"You think you can kill me, let's see your try Floran. When this battle hasn't even started yet."

The translator voice stopped, and the light on his face turned yellow. I didn't know what yellow meant, but this time when he spoke only quacks and noises came out, followed by no translation. The Captian took a few steps back, and leaned against the wall that stood behind him.

"This was fun, Floran. I would say we should do it again sometime, but I'm afraid you won't be able to. This is the end of the line for you, I bid you good bye, Floran."

He spoke; I didn't understand what he meant, what he had done. Within seconds, the room had flooded with Zurian, armed with swords and shields. Like a title wave had flown in across the beach, the ship rumbled and crashed as beeping and screaming and light flickered on and off. I was way out numbered, this ship was much bigger than anticipated, all I could do was prepare myself as countless enemies swarmed the room, blocking my every way out.

The rocket exploded against a tree behind me, I jumped to the ground beside me, and the soft white snow that once covered a peaceful land had broken my fall. Tucking my head in, I put my arms ahead me and rolled back to my feet as fast as I could. My back was scolding hot as I didn't completely dodge the blow, but my arms and legs were fine. As the creature picked up another missile to shoot my way, I advance toward him on the only feet that I had. Spear drawn in one hand, I readied it at my right side, this was going to be close, and I could die here, right now. This was a war, and either one of us could die, we both knew that, but we both have our reasons. We all have our past.

My feet breaking free of the ground I jumped into the air only few meters from the Zurian, having his rocket launcher reloaded and ready to fire he aimed it up at me, but it was too late for him, I would never know his past. Stabbing my spear into the rocket launcher, it was ripped to shreds from the fine tipped blade; and here comes the magic. Flames burst out the back end of the gun, as the electrical shock destroyed what was left of it. The creature was consumed by the fire, leaving me as the victor. A slight coat of ash covered my body from the explosion, it felt sticky and warm but I had to get out from under the ship before anything else. Turning around I thought the best option would be to dash straight for the trees, and figure out what to do from there, but instead I ended up face to face with machinery closely resembling a tank.

"Oh come on! What is this, a tank on one soldier? Are you that scared?!"

I yelled, but no response was given. Materialising from above, two more tanks appeared in their shiny yellow painted metal, all facing my direction. Swerving to my right I saw at the top of one of the tanks, which was about a foot taller than me, a small hatchet open and the head of another Zurian pop out.

"Avian, you are under arrest for attacking the ship. Put your arms above your head and surrender, we will not hurt you if you co-operate"

So in other words, put up your hands so we can blow you to smithereens. But what other option did I have, Aserva wasn't here, and she is usually the one to come up with the bright ideas. I was surrounded; this was my problem, so let's see what I do in the heat of the moment. Let's see what I can do, when I'm starring death in the eyes.


End file.
